Wednesday 6 August 2014

Developing A Dynamic Diocese

Faced with the problem of a falling number of active priests a Diocese must ask questions about its future and development; a development from which no one can exclude themselves. Our Diocese too is looking for ways of developing and moving forward in the light of a falling number of priests, for which it is to be commended. As our Ordinary has noted however, “The process cannot be pain free, but it can be fruitful”. Here then, are some quotes from the Diocesan website (see here) on this very issue.

This new project will look at ways in which to
encourage Catholic communities to flourish
with or without a resident priest.

In time, hard decisions will have to be made about
 buildings and communities/parishes which are no longer sustainable.
Each congregation will be asked to evaluate themselves
by answering the big question:
what makes for a flourishing Catholic community?

The day is approaching when we will not be able to
supply Sunday mass in every parish,
but we must not get depressed because
we have many committed priests and people.

NB. The small case 'm' for Mass is from the Diocesan website; it is not my deprecation!

However, I suspect the real pain is being avoided world-wide; a pain which will inevitably flow from facing the reality that laity cannot authentically lead Catholic communities. The fact is that we have to form Catholic Communities in light of Catholic Faith or they are not Catholic communities at all, and a Catholic community must always be head and members since at its very essence is the sacramental function of Christ the Head and Shepherd, for which the ordained priest is essential (cf. Redemptionis sacramentum 146). While not wishing to downplay the important part laity play in the day to day life of parishes (I for one would not like to lose the secretary, bookkeeper, financial advisors, Pastoral Care Council, housebound visitors, catechists, musicians etc) the truth is that laity are called by Christ to be the leaven in society (Apostolicam actuositatem 2,7), not to lead Catholic communities.

Since it is the falling number of priests that brings about the need to reorganise, a Diocese wishing to develop and become dynamic must first recover the priesthood in its sacred reality as shepherding in the person of Christ; as the bridge between heaven and earth; as spouse of the Church of Christ; as conformed to Christ in self-sacrifice for the good of others and sacramentally configured to Christ for teaching, sanctifying and governing in union with the episcopate (Catechism #1563/1592). At present the priest is seen as little more than a middle-manager in a collar who, if absent, can be replaced by laity with a theology degree as long as there is a supply of the Host in the tabernacle. Truly, we will not attract young men to priesthood if it is just lay ministry in a collar. Thus the vital essence of priesthood needs to be recovered and promoted before we start managing decline, albeit spun to sound like the promotion of dynamic communities.

Along with the recovery of the priesthood in its full reality, the authentic lay vocation as the leaven in the world needs to be recovered. The laity are, after all, the front line troops who fight for Christ and for souls. Vatican II spoke enthusiastically of Lay Mission, but somehow this has mutated (or been distorted) during the last fifty years into ‘lay ministry’ -even though one becomes a minister only through sacred ordination (Christifideles laici 23). The laity need to be valued and empowered in their proper vocation as given by Christ, not disempowered in it so as to become pseudo-clerics.  I am all for having an active laity but not for the distortion, since it is this distortion that diminished the response to the priestly calling: young men do not apply for priesthood when they can be lay-leaders.

The distortion has lost us some impressive and vital lay activity: serving Mass is now seen as something for young boys (and sometimes girls), while the Legion of Mary and SVP (which allowed many a devout Catholic to live out the spiritual and corporal works of mercy in superb local witness to the Church’s care of the poor, the housebound and the marginalised) have virtually disappeared from our parishes.

If a Diocese is looking to develop rather than manage decline then, I believe two things are necessary. First, a return to solid doctrinal formation for priests and laity (especially our children who had the catechism removed from them and replaced with colouring books and dialogue); a formation which promotes and empowers each vocation showing the vital necessity and complimentarity of both. Second, a return to a liturgy that focuses on God rather than one which aims at cheery, emotive affirmation of the folk. Such recoveries will be painful, especially because it will require admitting mistakes made over the last fifty years, but painful transitions can be fruitful, as our Bishop said. After all, the fruits of the fifty years have been the closure of parishes, convents, monasteries, seminaries and schools, all spurred by a precipitous fall in Mass attendance. We must avoid being diabolically deceived into seeing such losses and closures as positive fruits or as windows of opportunity. It is decay, pure and simple.

19 comments:

  1. Father,

    The quotes you give from the diocesan website are just rubbish. (Decided not to use the first word that came to mind!). However they are almost identical to those from my own diocese.

    Your comments, however, are not. We are Catholics and Catholic worship centres round the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. You need a priest. Laity led services have no part in Catholic worship and ,laity should not attend them.
    We go to Mass on Sundays and Holy Days. If is no priest, there are other prayers set by the Church which suffice.

    Now is the time for what bishops are not very good at, a clear managerial decision. That would be in the case of my diocese a decision to close probably 60% of the churches. Personally I could, inside half an hour drive to some 8 parishes and walk to perhaps 5, (well until recently!).

    The advantage of priests in self supporting pairs, able then to look after parishioners and offer the Mass and a range of Catholic services would be clear. From such true bases we could re-evangelise first of all our fellow Catholics, and then those outside the Catholic Church.

    Of course, this will not happen in my diocese. It will be the usual drawn out shambolic mess causing maximum disruption - as I suspect it will be in yours.

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    1. Thank you, Jacobi.
      Yes, I think we need the Mass and sacraments -and hence the priest- at the centre of every authentic Catholic community.
      Actually, our Bishop is a balanced guy; it is those who advise him that may cause some folk to worry,
      God Bless

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    2. Very tactful reply Father. "and be as wise as serpents"?

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  2. I associate the lack of vocations to the priesthood with contraception. How many potential priests were contracepted out of existance. The top clergy are guilty of allowing contraception to flourish because they lack the guts to oppose it. Now we see the results of their cowardice. Empty churches, empty pews and too few vocations. It's all very sad.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Paul.
      I agree; contraception (and abortion) have lost us our younger generation of priests and laity, but I do think the promotion of lay ministry has cheapened the priesthood so that it has become a managerial post rather than a sacred office.
      God Bless

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  3. What really needs thinking about is whether the diocese is is presenting itself in a way that is attractive to young men considering the priesthood. The Oratorians have been established in York for less than a year, and yet have already recruited their first novice. They also have several other enquiries, some of which look very promising.

    I wonder whether the Diocese of H & N has thought about copying Oratorian practices, to see how many vocations follow. It seems to be working in York!

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    1. Et Expecto,
      I too wish more communities and Diocese would follow the Oratorians in preaching and liturgy. But the emotion-led Church of the 70's is still alive with a hefty pull on self-indulgent souls -and we all suffer from self-indulgence to one degree or another. Oremus.
      God Bless.

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  4. The old Mass protected the sacred nature of the priest. The new Mass presents him as one who presents to us the sacred myteries in a non sacred way. There is no 'sacred veil' as there was before with the priest's back to us. Now what is sacred is exposed in an unsacred way. Its all too protestant. We must return to the traditional Holy Mass or gradualy change the new Mass into the old one. We could start by kneeling for Holy Communion and receiving on the tongue.
    Trouble is there are too few priests who think like this and are happy to go with the flow untill told to do otherwise by their bishop and he wont act until told by the Pope. Ah well this poverty of liturgy is a penance for our sins. The Church will come back one day in all its glory. Then people will look on it and clamour to become Catholic.

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  5. Paul,
    The new Rite, I would say, diminished mystery and the sacredness of the act and the priest by the loss of the altar-facing position and Gregorian Latin chant. There are Bishops who have never been fully observant of Rome's instructions (how many insist Redemptionis sacramentum is followed?) and cannot require obedience from their priests as a result, but they have a genuine fear of offending the people and of being at odds with their priests. The glory of the Church will return, but slowly; we can certainly see the corner approaching, but we aren't there yet.
    God Bless

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  6. I'm not sure we can just go back. We can't just undo forty years of lay ministry and concentrate on forming priests.
    Jack

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    1. Sorry for the delayed response...
      It isn't about going back; like a car with articles falling from the roof rack, we are pulling in to go on a recovery mission before continuing our journey.
      God Bless.

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  7. Father,

    Since the falling number of priests has brought about the need to reorganise, His Lordship should invite the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter into our diocese; I am sure they would welcome the opportunity to care for a parish here. The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest prevented the closure of an historic Church in New Brighton; perhaps they could do the same in Hexham and Newcastle? There is no need to close churches when there are fraternities who would willingly send priests to help us.

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    1. Thank you, Philip.
      Having the FSSP would be a great boon to any Diocese but I doubt that tradition is welcomed by too many in the episcopate (who want to keep happy the people they have left) or by the laity (who seek a democratic Church).
      God Bless.

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  8. I think those in the episcopate who are unfriendly to tradition need to take a look at statistics. If things continue as they are, the episcopate won't have any people to keep happy! Vocations have almost dried up. The current pastoral policies have failed miserably. It is insane to expect different results while repeating the same thing over and over again. Bishop Cunningham should be daring and give tradition a fair try.

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    1. Thanks, Philip.
      Indeed, statistics show the policies of the last fifty years to be disastrous, but think Bishop Cunningham is far more accommodating toward tradition and his people than many a bishop, though all of them seem to be locked, to some degree or other, into the 60's mid-set in which they were formed.
      God Bless

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  9. Father, I believe that your diocese has received 0 vocations in the last six years. My research shows that there was one candidate but that he left (?) last Christmas. Needless to say, this is well below other dioceses. More to the point, why is this the case? Granted, vocations have been on the radical decline since the Second Vatican Council yet your diocese eclipses all of the others in regards to the lack of vocations.

    Perhaps the reason for the dearth in vocations is linked to the recent gathering in your diocese, on the way forward. I read on the back of the Universe an article by Msgr Loftus (the same article was re-printed in its entirety in the Tablet). He was commenting on your diocese and this recent meeting He was adamant that your bishop, and the priest that he has placed in charge of the re-structuring, should be “brave” and “courageous” in regards to granting Sunday dispensation from Mass attendance in order that lay led services might take place at parishes without a priest. Surely we are now seeing the culmination of a plan that was there from the closing of the Second Vatican Council. This would mean that Catholic parishes become protestant gatherings in all but name, self-organised, autonomous, and self governed. The next logical move would be a lay Eucharist, probably a member of the community “ordained” for the specific task. This may be someway off but it seems clear that this is the logical goal of those that hold sway?

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    1. Thank you Fred.
      The Diocese is following a general trend in the Western Church in the “Forward Together in Hope” plan. As I say in the post, I think the emphasis is wrong. ‘Forward’ will, however, please Mgr Loftus, whose would, I think, like to see the kind of community you outline. As I said, if the community is to be Catholic it must be formed in the Catholic Faith, which sees an ordained priest as essential to the community or the function of Christ the Head.
      I have no precise figures on men in formation for priesthood in our Diocese, but the October 2013 letter from Bishop Cunningham said there were two seminarians in the Beda, one in the English College, and two in Oscott, so I cannot confirm your figures. In any case, we cannot speak of someone having a vocations until he is ordained; all prior to that is discernment of a vocation, which not authenticated till the Church actually ordains him.
      God Bless.

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    2. I agree with you to an extent, Father. The Western Church, for the most part, is in decline. However, the traditionalist camp (for want of a better name) is experiencing growth and a surplus of vocations. The FSSP continues to grow and expand; in late 2013 they had 153 seminarians and a further 10 deacons. This year, the SSPX report a total of 187 seminarians. Our diocese has two seminarians. The statistics speak for themselves.

      When will the Bishops of England and Wales wake up and see the reality of the situation? Things cannot continue as they are. The Catholic Church in this country has been destroying herself since the 1970s. We are in a downward spiral and things will not improve until the Bishops embrace tradition.

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    3. Thank you Philip,
      I agree that Bishops (not only in the UK but elsewhere) need to embrace Tradition, but it will take a huge amount of humility to acknowledge that the direction we have been taking for fifty years has been an error, and the courage to ensure the people acknowledge the same error.
      I cotninue to maintain that it is solid catechesis and devout liturgy will restore the Church's fortunes, but they have to come with the backing of the Bishops. And we may need to wait for another generation or two for that to happen.
      God Bless

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